The company run by the ‘ticket queen’ defrauded and illegally profited more than £6.5 million on ticketing websites Viagogo and StubHub, causing outrage among fans and artists.In a recent trial in the United Kingdom, ticket touts who defrauded fans of artists Ed Sheeran, Liam Gallagher and Lady Gaga were sentenced to prison for running a “fraudulent ticket trading” scheme. worth more than £6.5 million.

The judge sentenced four touts who fraudulently bought and sold hundreds of music tickets through a business called TQ Tickets. Each was sentenced to up to four years in prison over the weekend.

Maria Chenery-Woods, who runs the business and is nicknamed “ticket queen”, was first exposed as one of the UK’s most prolific ticket resellers in an investigation by The Observer newspaper in year 2016.

During the trial, Chenery-Woods admitted he “acted out of greed” to “extract” as much money as possible from fans.

In an investigation codenamed “Operation Zebedee,” experts from the UK’s cyber security department discovered that the defendants used “a variety of fraudulent and deceptive tactics” to purchase tickets from official sources, such as Ticketmaster and Eventim, and then resold them to fans in need at prices sometimes reaching 500% of their original value.

The court was informed that during a Skype conversation, defendant Paul Douglas referred to a customer as “an idiot” after they purchased two tickets to see “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” in the West End for £535 each, while the official ticket price was only £120. Chenery-Woods then added, “There are plenty of people like that.”

The defendants also claimed that the official ticket resale websites were complicit in their actions; however, the judge stated that this factor did not mitigate their culpability. The defendants were also involved in selling counterfeit tickets, not just inflating ticket prices.

When they were unable to purchase tickets legally for the shows, these defendants attempted to cover their tracks by providing fake postal codes and sending empty or torn envelopes to make it appear that tickets had been sent and lost in transit.

A representative from the investigation stated: “Today’s sentencing marks an important milestone in the fight against illegal online ticket selling and sends a very clear message that criminals who defraud fans are always at risk of prosecution.”

A spokesperson for the ticket resale website Viagogo stated that they could not comment on specific legal cases but added: “The bad actors go against everything we stand for. Viagogo is a managed platform, meaning we have safety measures in place to protect fans. Viagogo takes its legal obligations very seriously. When contacted by any relevant authority regarding any investigation, Viagogo will fully cooperate and fulfill its legal obligations.”

Ed Sheeran’s manager, Stuart Camp, participated in the investigation, providing evidence to support the prosecution. Camp stated that Sheeran’s team became actively involved in the investigation after discovering that tickets for a benefit concert the artist held for the Teenage Cancer Trust in 2017 were being sold at inflated prices. He hopes the trial will set a precedent for efforts within the live entertainment industry.

This is the second successful prosecution for ticket fraud. In 2020, two individuals who made at least £11 million from selling tickets for concerts by Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and Taylor Swift were also imprisoned after being convicted of fraud.

In the case known as the “Ticket Queen,” Mark Woods, 60, and Lynda Chenery, 51, were convicted of fraudulent trading on March 13. Chenery-Woods, 54, and Douglas, 56, also pleaded guilty during the investigation.